


The Butterfly Who Lost Her Wings

by illusionofcalm



Series: Star and the Motherverse [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Aftermath, Canon Divergence - S3E7 “Toffee", Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied Character Death, Magic, Motherhood, POV Alternating, Post Battle for Mewni
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:42:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24267625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illusionofcalm/pseuds/illusionofcalm
Summary: It was on that fateful day when Star Butterfly, the princess of Mewni, disappeared. Mewni was left broken, grieving, and lost. Queen Moon, despairing and left at her lowest point, decided that she would not rest until her daughter was freed, no matter what it cost her.((This is a post-Battle For Mewni AU where Star is unable to escape the wand. The emotional fallout is about as devastating as you would expect. Tags will be updated as necessary and as characters appear.))
Relationships: Marco Diaz/Jackie Lynn Thomas (established), Moon Butterfly/River Butterfly (established)
Series: Star and the Motherverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752274
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	1. Mother's Wisdom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this concept is probably a year or so too late, but I’ve had the idea for this fic in my head for a long time, ever since the Battle for Mewni aired. I only just now feel like I have a solid plan for this and feel confident enough in my ability to deliver it. I have a bunch of ideas on how I can incorporate some of the things from seasons 3 and 4 into this story, it’s just a matter of if I get there or not. I will be overwriting some canon concepts and leaving some others as is, it’s all in the fun of seeing where this fic will go!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ♦ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

If only her daughter had listened to her, then maybe, just maybe, this situation would never have befallen them.

Oh, who was Moon kidding? It was unfair to blame Star for all of this. If anything, she was just like her mother, pulling practically the same scheme that Moon had when she was her age. She was proud of Star, in a strange way, for taking the matter into her own hands and attempting to fix the problem as best as she could. But only now was Moon in a position to finally recognize how dangerous the situation was.

“Star!”

Her daughter was on an adjacent balcony, standing beside Ludo. She wasn’t that far away at all, and yet, it felt as if the distance between them was far greater than it had any right to be. At the sight of her daughter, Moon’s fear subsided significantly, but she could not shake the feeling of dread that was heavy in the air. Marco and Yvgeny stood next to the queen, confused by the situation presented before them. They probably felt very much out of their element, being thrown into a situation as dire as this.

Star turned to meet their gazes, offering a sad, little smile. Maybe she already knew how her mother felt about all this. “Hey, Mom. Hi, Marco.”

Moon wanted to ask what was wrong, but it clicked into place when a ghostly unicorn escaped from the wand embedded in Ludo’s hand. Her blood turned to ice. _No, she wouldn’t have…_ The half of the star insignia had darkened to an ominous black, confirming Moon’s fears.

“I, uh…” Star’s eyes darted away, as if she knew the consequences of what she had done just as well as Moon did. “I’m sorry, you guys.” The ghostly figure of the millhorse let out a defeated whinny before disappearing into the sky.

“Is she okay?” Yvgeny asked aloud, not to anyone in particular. “What does that mean? Is, is that...”

Marco attempted to answer him, but his voice quickly trailed off. “It’s…”

Tears immediately began to pool in the corners of Moon’s eyes as panic set in. “The... the Whispering Spell…” She slammed her fists down on the railing in front of her, as if it was going to give her some kind of ability to stop this from happening. But she knew just as well as Star did that what had been set in motion could not be interrupted. “No! Star! You... you get away! You run away from there!”

Star’s voice was quiet, but firm. “It's too late, Mom.”

Marco moved forward to stand beside Moon, his hands gripping onto the stone railing in an effort to ground himself. “She’s… why isn’t she running? Why is she just…”

Something must have clicked in Yvgeny’s mind, because he suddenly blurted out, “What?!” and took several quick steps backwards, away from the impending destruction. “Why she use that spell again?!”

Moon was too overwhelmed with horror to wonder how or why either of them would know what the spell was capable of. She was frozen to the spot, her mind, heart and body all at war with each other. She wanted to rush over there and do _something_ , but what could she even hope to do?

Ludo said something to Star excitedly, but Moon was unable to hear him over the wind. The two of them exchanged some words. Star’s gaze never strayed from the wand, her lips pressing together into a thin, contemplative line.

“No!” Moon screamed as the spell began its work. A fiercely bright pillar of green magic shot out of the wand and into the sky, crackling and snapping viciously. There was a sickening moment of silence as the wand imploded before an explosion shook the castle, taking down the entire tower with it. The three of them could only watch in horror as it fell apart and collapsed into a spray of dust and debris. 

“N-no, no no no NO!” Moon’s shoulders began to tremble violently, out of fear for her daughter’s life. “Buff Frog, we have to go now!”

Yvgeny, despite his dread, grunted in acknowledgement and scooped both her and Marco up in his arms, jumping down to the crater below. Moon tore through the rubble recklessly, overturning chunks of rock and sheets of stone. A wave of anger washed over her as she found an unconscious Ludo, however irrational those feelings might have been. Now that she knew Toffee was involved in this mess somehow—she should have known better than to assume that he’d finally left her and her family alone—it was impossible to place blame in this situation.

She never should have left Ludo alone once she found out he had the other half of the wand. If she had acted sooner, there was the chance that she could have prevented all of this. She felt so lost without the High Commission on her side, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it in the given moment. Her daughter was her one and only priority right now.

“Where's Star?” Moon barked out, picking up the small monster by his shoulders and shaking him. His eyes opened, but they were glassy and difficult to read. Was that the faintest tinge of pink light she could see in them? “Where is my daughter?!”

How peculiar it was, that it wasn’t Ludo’s voice she heard when he responded. No, it was far more familiar than that. “Mom! Mom, Mom! I'm in here!” 

“Star? Is that you?” She wasn’t exactly sure how Star had ended up inside of Ludo’s consciousness—was the inside of the wand and his mind connected somehow?—but the fact of the matter was that she was okay, and that was all that Moon could hope for.

“Yes, yes, it's me!” The relief was prominent in her daughter’s voice, as if she had shared the same fears as her mother.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Moon hugged the kappa tightly. She understood that her daughter might not even be able to recognize the gesture, but she made the effort nonetheless. Behind her, she heard both Marco and Yvgeny let out sighs of relief. They came up on either side of her and looked over Ludo curiously, equally surprised and puzzled by this new development.

“This is very strange…” Yvgeny commented. As comforting as it was to know that Star was still here, it didn’t make it any less disorienting to hear her voice coming out of Ludo.

Marco leaned forwards to better center himself in Ludo’s field of vision. “C-can you see us?” 

“Yeah, Marco, I can! Y-you guys didn’t get hurt, did you? You’re all okay?”

“I assure you, we’re fine,” Moon answered for them. “Are you? _Where_ are you?”

Her daughter’s voice was shaky and uncertain. “Well, I-I'm totally fine, but, uh... I don't exactly know where I am.”

“That's okay, sweetie,” Moon assured, hoping that her words could comfort her in some way. “The important thing is that you're safe. Just stay right there. And no matter what, we will find you!”

“Mom? M—yeah, c—“ Her voice was beginning to break up, to Moon’s dismay. “Can y—re—t-tha—“ Ludo’s eyes closed as her voice faded away.

Just as quickly as the brief period of relief had appeared, it was gone, leaving her unnerved and frightened. _No no no, come back to me! Please!_ “Star? Are you still there?" She shook Ludo again, a bit more aggressively than she intended, hoping to somehow reconnect to her daughter.

Ludo’s eyes opened again, but this time, the light behind them was a sickly, ominous green. The voice that came out of him was not her daughter’s. Yet it was somehow just as familiar, eerily so.

“Hello, Moon.”

It didn’t feel like her blood could run any colder than it already had. Her fight or flight reflexes desperately wanted to kick in, but she felt rooted to the spot, face to face with the one she recognized as her worst possible enemy. “Toffee…”

Ludo’s body floated out of her hands and up into the air, where he hovered in place, smiling a wide, toothy grin that didn’t quite seem to match what she knew about Ludo’s personality. The emptiness of his eyes made it all that much more unsettling.

All three of them were on their feet in an instant. Neither Marco nor Yvgeny moved into attack stances right away, but they were clearly put on edge by the confirmation of who this was in front of them. Marco looked completely taken aback, as if he thought this was impossible. His mouth was agape, but not so much as a word escaped him. Yvgeny’s eyes were anxiously darting between Ludo’s hovering body and their surroundings like he was expecting more bad memories of the past to jump out of hiding and ambush them. Despite his attempts to appear threatening, he was very clearly incredibly tense.

Moon shook her head quickly, clearing her thoughts. Why Toffee was here did not matter, not right now. She took a commanding step forwards and clenched her fists at her sides. “Give us back Star.”

“Oh, of course,” Toffee chuckled. “But I'd like something from you first. Something that belongs to me.” He outstretched his hand, still bearing the blackened half of the wand in his palm. The missing finger was easily recognizable.

 _His finger_ , she remembered. He had mentioned it before, when the rest of the Magic High Commission had been incapacitated. She had found it amid all the rubbish shoved into Star’s closet and had kept it on her since, fearful that Toffee would find it himself. But now, what was she to do? Her sense of reason told her that giving in to his demands was a very poor choice, but did she really have any other options? Her child was now trapped inside the same plane as that monster, that villain. Star needed to be rescued immediately. There was no doubt that her daughter was a fighter, and she was likely already trying to find her own way of escaping. But if Toffee had been inside the wand, after all this time, and had never found a way to escape—

Moon stopped herself from debating it further, reluctantly reaching to remove the small jar from her belt and hold it out towards him. The finger sat inside.

“Your Majesty,” Toffee said, as he floated down closer to her. His hand outstretched further, silently asking for her to follow through with his demands. “Do we have a deal?”

“Take it.”

She tipped the jar upside down and dumped the finger out of it, placing it in his hand before she could convince herself otherwise. The smirk on Ludo’s face widened as he closed his hand around it. The finger immediately began to reattach itself to the severed stump it was once a part of, until it was whole once more.

The light in Ludo’s eyes flickered out, leaving them pitch black. He looked as if his life force had been taken out of his own body, similar to the fate of the High Commission. He hung limply in the air. 

Moon wanted to cry out for her daughter again—perhaps she could finally hear her, now—but Ludo’s right arm sharply extended, prompting her to stay silent. The newly reformed finger had yet to stop expanding, as unnatural gray ooze slowly spread from his hand and up his arm, overtaking Ludo’s entire body in a horrific display. The dark sludge took on the shape of a skeleton as it continued to grow. Skin stretched over its form, followed by a jet black suit. As the figure’s shape began to finalize into lizard-like features, his eyes were the last thing to roll into place, and he lightly floated back down to the ground without saying so much as a word. Toffee’s eyes were widened, his gaze settling on the empty space in front of him.

Before anyone was able to even react, he bent forwards and vomited out some of the sickly dark ooze that had reconstructed his body, as well as Ludo himself, who landed in a mostly unconscious heap on the ground. Toffee blinked a few times, shocked silent, before returning to stand upright and examine his hand. It looked as if his finger had never been absent in the first place. His eyes were stretched wide in disbelief.

“Where is my daughter?” Moon demanded, taking a slight step towards him.

“Yeah, where’s Star?!” Marco chimed in from behind her, finally breaking his silence. He chose to adopt a karate stance, lowering himself to the ground with partially bent knees.

Toffee turned his hand out to face them, where the fragment of the wand still resided. Without warning, he clamped his hand shut, crushing the blackened, brittle stone in his palm. It crumbled to dust and he allowed the broken remains to fall to the ground.

“She’s gone,” he said plainly, before he turned and began to walk away.

Everything around Moon in that very moment felt as if it ceased to exist. He had to be lying. There was no possible way that he was telling the truth—she refused to give it the consideration. Admitting that would mean that her daughter was gone, and she wasn’t going to let that be a possibility. No, not at all. She wasn’t in the wand, no, she was somewhere else, safe and happy, somewhere where nothing bad could happen to her.

Her eyes were tearing up...why were they tearing up? Nothing was wrong. No, she hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of her life. Toffee hadn’t won. He hadn’t succeeded in this revenge scheme of his. He hadn’t taken away her baby girl. She was going to prove it. She had to prove that he had failed, and then maybe, just maybe, she could have the last laugh...

Her feet set in motion before her mind could even register it, carrying her towards the septarian. She stepped faster and faster, until she was running, and a emotionally-driven scream tore out of her as she clenched her fists and lunged at him.

Toffee had whirled around to face her the moment she threw her first punch. He pushed her hand away from him before it could collide with his chest. Again and again, she threw her fists at him, and he continued to block her attacks until he caught each of her fists in his own hands. Moon struggled free of his grip and instead pulled Star’s half of the wand off of her belt, placing it directly over the monster’s chest as she repeated the words of the very spell she had used on him in the first place. Despite it being in her own hands, the wand’s shape never changed.

“I call the darkness onto me from deepest depths of earth and sea! From ancient evils unawoken, break the one who can't be broken! From blackest night I pledge my soul, and crush my heart to burning coal! To summon forth the deadly power; to see my hated foe devoured!” Her words were bathed in desperation, but the spell did nothing at all.

Toffee narrowed his eyes at her impatiently. “Are you finished?”

He flinched slightly as a punch was thrown into his back and turned his head to glare at the one who had inflicted it. Marco stood there with his fists held up, clenched knuckles turning white with anger. Tears were pooling in his eyes. Toffee grumbled something under his breath and turned to grab him by the arm, haphazardly throwing him at a nearby pile of rubble. The boy landed in a painful heap, and Yvgeny immediately rushed over to him.

Moon snapped out of her stupor as Toffee took hold of her shoulders, shoving her into the ground. He dusted his hands off on his suit jacket and spared one last unreadable glance at her before walking away. Ludo stopped him before he could leave, but her mind had tuned him out. Her thoughts spiraled downwards as fast as her tears were falling down her face, and she tried desperately to think of something else that could be done.

She scrambled over to the pile of broken pieces scattered across the ground, scooping up a small handful. Yes, that was it! She could put the wand back together again. Then everything would be alright—it _had_ to be alright. 

The ground scuffled in front of her, signaling that someone was approaching. But she hardly even heard it.

“Come on, come on. Why won't you fit? Come on.”

A shadow appeared on the ground over her. “Queen?” She looked up and met Marco’s gaze. His sadness was apparent on his face.

“M-Maybe if I-I put the wand back together, it'll… it'll bring her back.” Her voice was trembling as badly as her frail hands were. “But this piece won't fit.”

Marco leaned down on one knee and silently looked over the wand, before picking out a piece and offering it to her. “Here. Try this one.”

“Th-thank you,” she murmured, carefully taking it from him and glancing over it first, and then the pile of shards just in front of her. “There’s just so many pieces, I-I don’t even know where to start…”

She heard light footsteps cautiously draw near, and she knew there was only person around that was small enough to fit that description. Her gaze snapped up to connect with Ludo’s, startling him with how piercing it was. 

“I-I’m sorry!” he stammered out immediately, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. 

She didn’t care how apologetic he sounded. There was no excusing what his actions had ultimately led to, in her eyes. “This is _your_ fault. It’s all because you were stupid enough to fall for his tricks!" He flinched under her accusation, frightened. She recognized the hypocrisy in her own statement—she had just given Toffee the power to escape the wand, hadn’t she?—but the torrent of emotions running through her mind convinced her that she was justified in blaming him. It felt like the only thing she was still able to do.

“I’m so sorry,” Ludo murmured. “I… I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know anything anymore!” He conveyed his frustration and equally afflicted emotions with a wave of his arms. “I never meant for this to happen! I don’t even know what is my fault, a-and what is his…he’s used me, too, I hope you realize…”

“And that’s supposed to give you a pass?” Moon pushed herself off the ground, standing tall over the comparably tiny monster. “Did you really think that no one was going to get hurt? You took over an entire kingdom by brute force and threatened every person standing in your way!”

Ludo made no attempt to deny any of the accusations being thrown at him. He hung his head shamefully and couldn’t bear to maintain eye contact with the queen. “I wanted to be something more, someone who would be revered by the masses for his awe-inspiring greatness. My wand, it spoke to me, yes! It told me that I would be loved as the new King of Mewni. I thought that I could make things better! But the people of Mewni, they despised me… and even worse, it turns out, I haven’t accomplished anything on my own! I thought Toffee was dead, but he was here all along, manipulating me every step of the way!”

“What’s done is done, Ludo. You cannot deny responsibility for your crimes!”

“I’m not trying to!” He retorted, his temper growing equally short. “I’m trying to apologize!”

Moon, not able to stand looking at him any longer, turned herself away from him. “Just get out! Go away!” 

“I know that we fought all the time, but I truly never wanted Star to get hurt! Not like this! I just wanted—“

“Get out of my sight!” She screamed, clutching her hands over her head. “L-let me concentrate, please...”

Ignoring him, she studied the wand pieces through her teary eyes, trying to think of what other options she had. She couldn’t think clearly with that insurgent monster pestering her, but even once he gave up and backed away, there was still no way she was going to be able to put all of the pieces back together. Her mind _knew_ this, but her heartache refused to let up. She fell to her knees in front of the broken relic in an admission of desperation.

“I, I need to start over.” She dumped the fragmented half of the wand back into a pile and flattened out the crumbling pieces so she could more easily see them individually. “I have to...”

“Queen Moon.” Yvgeny’s voice was firm, but cautious. “I do not think that is going to work.”

“It’s going to work,” she insisted. “It will work, you’ll see. I’ll prove you all wrong.”

“She might be right,” Marco offered, only to immediately be shut down by Yvgeny.

“No! Do not encourage her.”

“It’s going to work!” _I’ll show you all_ , she told herself. _I’ll prove it. For Star's sake_.

“Please, you are only hurting yourself by doing this.” Yvgeny kneeled down and managed to pry the wand out of her hands—granted, her grip on it had been shaky.

“What are you—no! Give it back!” She was on her feet in an instant, repeatedly trying to steal it back. He held it well above her head, just out of her reach.

“Queen—“

“Give it back! Give it back, now!” She started beating her fists against his arm weakly, desperately. When the wand still had not returned to her hands, she collapsed into heavy, miserable sobs. Yvgeny frowned sorrowfully at the poor queen, holding onto her shoulder to prevent her from toppling over where she stood.

When the tears had finally run its course, her shoulders dropped in resignation. Her pleading, watery gaze connected with the frog monster. “What am I supposed to do?”

“You should take rest, come back with clear head. Then maybe you will find answer.”

She sniffled and nodded slowly.

“If there is one thing I know about Toffee, is that he is liar. He get inside your mind, make you think all the wrong things.” He turned and looked in the direction that Toffee had left, glaring with contempt. “What he know about magic, anyway?”

Moon’s eyes followed. The septarian had since disappeared, leaving no trace or hint of where he might have gone.

A commotion of royal guards and a few curious passerby had begun to gather around the edge of the crater. Upon seeing the state of the queen, the guards jumped down so that they could escort all of them up to safety. 

“Your highness! Are you alright?” the guard captain asked, skidding to a halt in front of her. “That was quite the explosion…”

Moon hurriedly scooped the wand fragments up from off of the ground, depositing them in the same jar that had previously held Toffee’s finger. Only after she was sure she had all of the pieces did she respond to the guard. “Y-yes, I’m fine, I wasn’t hurt…”

The guard noticed that she had been crying almost immediately. Her reddened and puffy eyes were a dead giveaway, and she likely was showing her grief very clearly. The captain was about to start speaking again, but Moon caught something in the corner of her vision that was more of a pressing matter. A few of the other guards that had jumped down into the crater were now attempting to handcuff both Ludo and Yvgeny—it seemed like they were having difficulty finding handcuffs of the right sizes for either of them, however.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Moon demanded, projecting her voice as clearly as she could manage through her emotional turmoil.

The guards shared glances with each other. It took a couple of moments before one of them dared to speak. “Um… arresting these monsters, your highness..?”

“He helped me,” she said, pointing at Yvgeny. “Where exactly do you think you are taking him?”

“Well, we were going to imprison both of them until further notice, just to be safe.”

“No, you will not. Not him. Buff Frog has not done anything wrong.”  
“But, your majesty, he’s a—“

“No. That is an order.”

“If you insist, your highness.” The closest guard removed the cuffs he had been attempting to lock on his wrists, sparing a judgmental glance at him. Yvgeny took the high road and ignored him entirely. As the guards turned their attention back to Ludo, he crossed the clearing to stand in front of Moon.

“T-thank you, Queen.” The monster quickly bowed his head in gratitude. “I am terribly sorry about Star… if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“You have your own family to take care of,” Moon responded curtly, her tone coming off as cold. She realized this and tried to backpedal. “…so you don’t need to worry about me and my problems. I’ll be okay.”

He seemed to understand what she meant. He nodded his goodbye and, with one last “thank you” and a solemn look at all of the saddened faces around him, he left the scene and returned to the forest.

“What about him, your majesty?” the guard captain asked, motioning to Ludo. The kappa had already been handcuffed and the guards were waiting for further direction from the queen. 

Moon addressed him directly, which seemed to startle him again. “Ludo, you have committed many crimes against my kingdom. I can’t simply forgive that.”

Guiltily, he dipped his head. “I understand.” 

That was good enough for the guards, who were quick to escort him away as a prisoner. As they began to climb out of the crater, the captain noticed that Moon hadn’t moved from where she stood. She was staring at the ground silently.

“My Queen? Are you sure that you are alright?”

Quickly, Moon assessed her priorities. “Issue a dimension-wide arrest warrant for Toffee of Septarsis immediately. Make it of the highest importance, have him brought back alive.”

“B-but your highness, is that not to be the decision of the entire Magical High Commission? Do you have the authority to make such a—“

“I am the only one left.” Her voice dropped to a low, serious tone. “I am making this decision on their behalf.”

“Wh— do you mean to tell me that the High Commission is dead?!”

“No, they’re not dead! No one has died!” Part of her knew her denial was more personally motivated than she’d like to admit. Exhaling loudly, she attempted to calm herself. “Just… please, _please_ … do as I ask.”

The captain, despite her frown, raised her hand to her head in a salute. “O-of course. Right away, your majesty. My apologizes.”

“Find him,” Moon ordered, clenching her fists. “We have to find him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow start, I know. The real canon divergence will start soon.


	2. Rollover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the day after the disappearance of Star Butterfly, and things still seem uncertain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and chapter 3 are supposed to have been one chapter (They have similar narrative functions and I really didn’t want to bore you guys by repeating conversation beats) but it got so long that I was forced to split them up. The POV swapping begins soon, I promise! Hope you’re not getting tired of Moon yet, haha

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ♦ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

In a strange sort of phenomenon, the Kingdom of Mewni’s atmosphere often reflected the queen’s. There were days where this inexplicable aura copied Moon’s feelings well before she was able to fully realize them on her own.

The air that greeted Moon when she awoke the next morning was heavy with uncertainty. Her eyes flickered open to an empty, gloomy infirmary, and she immediately had trouble recalling why she would be here instead of in her bedroom. She laid there, unmoving, as she tried her best to remember.

There was no possible way to cover up the disappearance of her daughter, that much was obvious. People were going to notice in a matter of time. But she silently hoped that she might first have some time to come to terms with what had happened and figure out the best way of explaining it. Public morale was already dangerously low, and the last thing the people of Mewni needed to hear was that a member of the royal family had disappeared.

Magic wasn’t going to be of any help, either, on account of the fritz. Moon felt more out of touch with her magic now than she had when she was first learning to harness it. That in combination with how emotionally drained she felt made her connection with her butterfly form feel distant and inaccessible. Wandless magic simply wasn’t an option. There was a high chance that she wouldn’t be able to use it reliably until something came along to change that fact.

But things had not changed for the better. She suspected it would be a long time before that happened.

Staring at the ceiling, she continued to lay on the mattress, trying to garner the strength to move despite her exhaustion and pounding headache. When she sat upright, a rush of vertigo hit her with force, making her suddenly aware of how sick she felt—not feverish, but nauseous. _Where in the world did this come from..?_

In that moment, the door to the infirmary opened and a disheveled nurse entered the room. “Oh! Your majesty, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

With the way her head was swimming, Moon was barely able to process the words that she heard. “Dizzy,” was the answer that left her mouth. Not really a feeling so much as it was a symptom, but at least she’d managed to say an actual word.

The nurse crossed the room and stood beside her bed, pressing three fingers flat against her forehead. “Hmm… it doesn’t feel as if you have a fever, thankfully.”

“How…” The nurse waited patiently as she tried to get her question across. “How long have I been asleep..?”

“It’s been about fourteen hours."

“W-what?” _That’s absurd!_ _This situation is far too dire for me to be sleeping through half the day!_ “Why didn’t—“

“You fainted,” the nurse answered for her, falsely assuming that she wanted to know what had happened to her, and not why she hadn’t been woken up before now. “It’s clear that you needed rest, your majesty. These past few days certainly must have been traumatic for you.”

 _I don’t remember fainting… though, I suppose it’s not likely I would remember that._ The more Moon thought about the preceding days, it didn’t seem all that improbable. She had briefly abandoned her queenly duties for the sake of uncovering the source of the magical fritz. It felt as if she had visited the Avarius family several weeks ago, when in reality it couldn’t have been more than a few days at most. Everything had transpired rapidly, giving her no time to breathe. The last time she had slept was when she and Star took refuge in the Magic Sanctuary, and that had only been for a couple of hours.

 _That explains the exhaustion, though I have no reason to feel as sick as I do._ “I-I appreciate the sympathy, but… I can’t afford to waste so much time.”

“You haven’t missed anything, your majesty,” the nurse assured her. “People are being understanding. Manfred has been doing his best to allocate duties in your place.”

Her reassurance only gave Moon more questions. _Why is Manfred assuming responsibility during all this? Where is River?_

“We’re just trying to make things a bit easier on you,” the nurse went on. Her voice was cautious, as if she felt she was treading on ice. “Your grief appears to be making you ill.”

 _That’s not a real thing,_ Moon wanted to retort, but there wasn’t much of a point in arguing. She was no stranger to grief. Not many people were.

She hadn’t been granted much time to grieve her mother’s death, not while tasked with finding a resolution to the war. Back then, the entirety of Mewni had its eyes on her. She could not allow herself to be grief-stricken, with the threat of destruction looming just on their borders. It had to stay bottled up under her surface, so that no one would ever know what was really going on inside her head. Doing so had made her incredibly tired, but never physically ill to the point where it was debilitating.

Swallowing thickly, she made an attempt to stand up, placing a hand on the side table in an effort to stabilize herself. Her opposite hand came up to rest against her forehead as she screwed her eyes shut, the movement setting off a pounding sensation inside of her skull.

“Ah, I’m not sure if it’s the best idea to try to stand,” the nurse objected. “You should eat something first.”

Whatever level of appetite she might’ve had under normal circumstances was rendered irrelevant by how sickly she felt. Food was the last thing she wanted to think about right now. “I have a kingdom to look after.”

“Your health is important, too, your majesty. At the very least, may I bring you some water?”

Moon held her gaze for a moment, before sighing and giving in. “Some water would be great. Thank you.”

She smiled and dipped her head. “Of course.”

Relieved by her cooperation, the nurse was quick to exit the room, leaving Moon alone with her thoughts again. As she rested against the bed frame, her recollection of the events prior to her fainting slowly started to become clearer.

Word had gotten out about Star, despite her attempts to prevent it. She had only spoken to a select few guards about what had really occurred the previous day, not realizing soon enough that it was a mistake. It hadn’t been long before the entire castle erupted into roaring whispers and hushed speculation, and she suspected the castle town was no different. Word only ever traveled fast when it was the least desirable.

And like any good rumor, it was quick to lose its original meaning through miscommunication and generalization. The whispering shifted from “the princess is missing” to “the princess is dead” in a matter of hours. Moon was confronted about it multiple times, by captains and staff members and even a surprisingly outspoken servant, once. She could only refute it so many times before it had started to grate on her and make her question if she really knew the answer.

 _What are you thinking?_ _Of_ _course you do_ , she asserted to herself. _Star is still alive, she_ has _to be alive._ _You_ spoke _to her on the day the wand was destroyed._

Moon buried her face in her hands, stifling a disparaged laugh. How crazy did that sound? She could deny that her daughter had been killed with as much insistence as she could muster, but at the end of the day, she had nothing to support her claims. She knew that it was possible to reach Star through the wand, but it was broken now and would therefore be useless in any of her attempts to prove her point.

She drew back her palms from her face, catching a glimpse of her arms. The dark magic that scarred her hands had stretched even further up her forearms, and her gloves were no longer able to hide the markings from view. She had failed to cast the Darkest Spell when she tried yesterday, but apparently it still had some sort of effect on her. If she’d been in her usual headspace, she would have been much more alarmed by the realization that several people now had seen her like this. But all that escaped her was a sigh.

 _It’s probably for the better that it failed,_ she admitted. She had resolved to never use that spell again, many years ago. As much as she wished to see Toffee face a gruesome punishment for his crimes against her family, he was the only person in the universe who had any idea of where Star was. He was her best chance at returning her daughter to her.

 _Of course, that’s assuming he’s willing to cooperate._ Moon clenched her fists in irritation. _There’s no way to know if catching him will improve any of this… but I have to try, don’t I?_

The door to the infirmary opened once more, and the nurse offered her a smile as she returned. “Here’s that water, as promised. I’d like to run a couple more checkups before you head out.”

She bowed her head gratefully. “Thank you for your help.”

The nurse nodded once as she checked through the nearby cabinets. If you can think of anything else you might need, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”

Moon’s thoughts trailed back towards her previous musings. Her gaze fell onto her arms again. “Actually… if may trouble you for one more thing?”

✧·ﾟ: *·ﾟ✧

With a new set of arm-length gloves and a waning feeling of nausea, Moon made her way to the castle foyer. There were several guards and castle attendants hurriedly bustling about, but a hushed silence quickly fell over the room once people began to take notice of her. Manfred forced his way through the crowd and mercifully broke the silence. “My queen! I’m glad to see you are alright.”

She nodded her head once in acknowledgement. “I trust that you’ve supervised the kingdom well in my absence.”

“I have done my best,” he said, bowing.

Moon nodded her approval while thinking carefully about her priorities. Magic was still on the fritz, and the kingdom—no, all of Mewni—was going to suffer greatly if it was not dealt with. This wasn’t just about her daughter anymore. No, it was so much bigger than that.

_Okay. Make a list of what’s important, then. Dwelling on such things won’t be of any use right now._

This fritz was a magical crisis, likely requiring a magical solution _._ She straightened her posture and assumed a serious demeanor. “Where is Glossaryck? Has he been recovered yet?”

“Nobody has found him or the Book of Spells.”

That was unfortunate. As difficult as it was to understand Glossaryck at times, Moon still found herself saddened by the fact that he was still missing. Recovering Ludo should have restored some sort of normalcy in her life, but it sounded like it wasn’t going to be nearly as simple as that. “Then, where is my husband?”

“Erm, well… we aren’t entirely sure, your majesty,” Manfred explained, his voice sounding rather apologetic. “That monster, Ludo, um… he ‘Levitato-ed’ him while he was in power. B-but I assure you we have scouts looking for him now, all across Mewni.”

“Well, if it was something that Ludo did, it can’t be all that bad.” Normally, the mere thought of such a thing would have amused Moon, but as far as she was concerned, she was lucky. “How is Ludo, anyway? Where is he?”

“In the castle prison, as you requested. He hasn’t said much of anything since he was placed there.”

Moon thought about it for a moment. “He should know where Glossaryck is. I’ll speak with him later.”

“I’ll be sure to put in a word to the guards,” Manfred promised. “What else do you wish to see done?”

“Recovering King River and the Book of Spells are our most pressing matters currently. From the sound of it, you’ve done a good job of prioritizing these things.”

“Oh, well…” Manfred mulled over his next words cautiously. “I had thought that you’d… forgive my bluntness, your majesty, but what do you intend to do about the princess?”

The silence in the room only grew denser as dozens of gazes watched, curious to see what her answer would be. Since Manfred had tossed the question into the air, he’d allowed them to get their answers without having to ask her themselves.

“At the very least,” he continued, “Don’t you think we should make some sort of statement about what’s happened to her?”

“There’s nothing to say. Until Toffee is found and captured, I don’t want to speak on this matter publicly.”

The room erupted into confusion, with so many people speaking at once that it was nearly impossible to decipher what was being thrown her way.

“But how long will that take—”

“—you would dare postpone—“  
  
“—think the people will start to notice—”

“—death of a royal is far more—“

“—mourning of your own daughter—“

“—won’t make it go away—“

“—expect the other Kingdoms of Mewni to react—”

“Enough!” Moon shouted in frustration, her voice projecting over the entire crowd. “There’s nothing that I can do for her now, not while magic is so unreliable. I have no choice but to wait until the situation changes.”

“B-but certainly, your majesty, the people would be more than understanding if you needed time to mourn. If anything—“

“Star is alive,” she cut him off, declaring her statement with as much certainty as she could muster. “I know that she is. I haven’t lost her yet, and I won’t allow that to happen, I swear it on my life.”

Her audience shared wary, uncertain glances amongst each other. A familiar face, Lady Whosits, stepped forwards. “Do you know _where_ she is?”

“…Not exactly,” Moon sighed. “It’s not somewhere that any of you can reach, let alone myself.”

Unspoken words travelled across the faces of the crowd. Even if no one dared to speak them aloud, the questions still met Moon with unrelenting force. Doubts crept into her subconscious. _Even if Star is still alive… if she’s stuck somewhere where I can’t reach her, is that really any different? Is it better? Is it worse?_

She couldn’t allow herself to show hesitation. Clenching her fists at her side, she stated, ”My daughter is a fighter, that much I know. I will never make the mistake of underestimating her, not again. You all would do well to learn the same and stop propagating these baseless rumors.“

The beat of silence that followed was chilling. Not one of them appeared to be willing to debate her directly. Hushed murmurs spread through the crowd, but Manfred was quick to start ushering guards out of the room.

“You heard the queen! We shall focus our efforts on the capture and containment of this ‘Toffee’ character. Now, shoo! Leave her be!”

As the crowd dispersed, Moon was able to pick out a face among the crowd that she hadn’t noticed until now. He was standing off to the side, near the royal songstrel and his group of performers. Admittedly, Moon didn’t know much about the extent of his and Star’s friendship—it really wasn’t any of her business—but she had gathered that they were close. This was likely affecting him in a similar manner.

“Marco? You’re still here on Mewni?”

He hadn’t been looking at her directly, and startled at the mention of his name. He glanced over his shoulder sheepishly. “Oh, yeah… I was planning on leaving soon, I promise. I got a bit sidetracked, sorry.”

“No, it’s not a problem, it’s just… don’t you have your own family you need to return to?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “But I couldn’t leave with a clean conscience if I didn’t apologize to these guys for leaving them behind.”

“And like we said,” Ruberiot spoke up, unable to mask the smug grin on his face. “The resistance never forgets.”

The jester, Foolduke, slugged Ruberiot in the shoulder and cast a glare in his direction. “Don’t listen to him, Marco. We totally understand.”

Marco smiled appreciatively at her—and the mime, too, who pantomimed a big grin across her face. He turned back to Moon, and exhaustion found its way back into his expression. “Okay, maybe not just that.” He shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets. “I’m really worried about Star, too.”

“I understand. Really, I do.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and mustered up a sad smile. “But I couldn’t forgive myself if I let something happen to you, too. You should go home. I’m sure that your friends and family are just as worried about you.”

“She’s one of my best friends,” he murmured, looking away. “I don’t want to just go home and do nothing about it… there has to be _some_ way we can help her, right?”

“I’m afraid this is a lot more complicated than any of us could have imagined.” Things were grim, and Moon wasn’t sure if she had the energy to remain optimistic. The heavy uncertainty in the atmosphere was affecting everyone. Even the performers seemed at a loss for words, each one of them glancing away. “If we find out anything, you will be the first to know. I promise.”

Marco frowned, not satisfied with that answer. “I want to stay until River gets back, at least,” he argued. “I have to help somehow, it’s the least I can do!”

Moon attempted to consider potential options, but there really wasn’t anything he _could_ do that wouldn’t put him at risk of getting roped into this mess any more than he already had. Toffee was simply far too dangerous. Moon had assumed he knew this, too, if their encounter with Toffee yesterday was anything to go by.

 _Wait_ , she realized. _Why would he have known to be afraid of Toffee? Unless…_

“You can help by telling me what you know about Toffee,” she decided. “I know now that Star faced him before, and I assume you were aware of that.”

His eyes widened in surprise at the mention of Toffee. He took a moment to process before sighing and confirming her suspicions as correct. “Yeah, I… I was there, actually.”

“I need to know the full extent of what happened. If I can try to understand his motivations, it might make it easier to predict his movements and track him down.” _It would be good to know how much Star’s been keeping from me, too_ , Moon admitted, fully recognizing a part of her incentive for learning the full story.

“I’ll try to remember as much as I can,” Marco promised.


	3. Earth and the Lost Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco returns to Earth and sets out to right a wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The text message formatting used in this and possibly future chapters is by [CodenameCarrot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CodenameCarrot/pseuds/CodenameCarrot) and [La_Temperanza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/La_Temperanza/pseuds/La_Temperanza). You should be able to still read this chapter just fine if you don't have work skins enabled, but it won't look nearly as cool. ([Learn how to do it yourself here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434845))

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ☾ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

A rift in space opened up in the Diaz family’s living room. Marco emerged from it a second later, dimensional scissors in hand. He was exactly where he had intended to land, in the middle of his living room. But only when the portal had disappeared did he realize that he hadn’t fully thought that decision through.

His mother, Angie, immediately noticed his arrival from her standing place in the kitchen. “Marco, you’re home!”

A cold wave of dread washed over him as he caught sight of his mother’s unknowing smile. She threw her arms around him in a hug, but he was completely lost in his thoughts, dismayed by his realization. _I’m going to have to be the one to break the news to everyone in Echo Creek…_

“Welcome home.”

“Hi, mom.” Marco tried to politely excuse himself to his room, but Angie wasn’t about to let him go so easily.

“Did you get everything figured out with Star?” she asked, letting up on her grasp. “I know she didn’t leave on the best terms.”

He turned around slowly, opting to stare at the wall behind her instead of making eye contact. “Actually… can we talk about it later? I’m really tired.”

Unfortunately, Angie was smarter than that. “Is everything alright?”

“I’m tired,” he repeated. “I’m really, really tired.”

“Marco?” She could only repeat her son’s name as he turned his back and ascended the stairs without responding further. “Marco!”

He shut his bedroom door behind him, trying to listen through the door. When he was certain that his mother hadn’t followed him in an effort to demand answers, he slid down the wall to a seated position on the floor and sighed heavily, his exhaustion finally starting to catch up with him.

His phone in is pocket was being bombarded by incoming messages, now that he’d returned to a place with cell service. He remained there on the floor for several moments before he was able to convince himself to look through his notifications. There were a lot of unread messages from his friends, mostly Jackie. As he was attempting to read through them, he was bombarded by several new texts from Janna.

**Janna:** yo diaz  
  
**Janna:** are u home yet?  
  
**Janna:** u better answer me  


Because of _course_ Janna somehow knew that he was back on Earth. He supposed it really wasn’t all that surprising, once he thought about it.

**Marco:** Yeah I am, how did you know that?  
  
**Janna:** not important  
  
**Janna:** ur gf has been harassing me bc u werent responding  
  
**Janna:** next time maybe give some notice before u disappear?  


Guilt flooded over him. She had every right to be upset with him, as far as he was concerned. Everyone did. He was the one who left without notice, and aside from a parting message to Jackie—apparently she had still tried to contact him anyways—no one else in his immediate friend group had known where he was. 

**Marco:** I’m really sorry  
  
**Marco:** I didn’t mean to be gone as long as I was  
  
**Janna:** save your sorries for your gf dude  
  
**Janna:** u cant just disappear for a week w/o warning and pretend nothings changed. shes got every right to be mad if she is  
  
**Janna:** i kinda do too, lucky for u im not the grudge holding type  
  
**Janna:** did star come back with u or is she like staying on mewni or whatever  


Marco collapsed backwards onto his bed, defeated. His phone fell out of his hand, currently of little concern to him now that he was so lost in his thoughts. _There’s just no escaping this, is there?_ Everything had always been about Star, and everything _still_ was about Star. Just as suddenly as she had crashed into his life, she was gone, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, about how the last thing she’d thought to do before disappearing in that explosion was to apologize.

A piece of his world had went with her, and he couldn’t help but feel that he was somehow responsible. There had to have been warning signs, right? Should he have done something differently, or done something sooner? “I hate this,” he murmured aloud, burying his face in his hands. “I hate this…”

 _Star probably hates this, too,_ he admitted inwardly. She always did everything in her power to be a positive force in people’s lives. The last thing she’d want is for everyone who cared about her to be moping around. _I really hope she knew what she was getting herself into…_

He finally spared another glance at his phone.

**Janna:**???  
  
**Marco:** Sorry  
  
**Marco:** I don’t know if I want to talk about it right now, if that’s ok  
  
**Janna:** yeah sure  
  
**Janna:** if things are awkward between u two now thats ur business, not mine  
  
**Janna:** jackie isnt mad at you fr that btw  
  
**Marco:** For what?  
  
**Janna:** uh  
  
**Janna:** at the party?  


_Oh, right,_ Marco grimaced. Just before she left for Mewni—and subsequently vanished—Star had confessed her feelings for him in front of everyone at their end-of-the-school-year celebration. Even now, he still couldn’t help but hold some resentment towards her for how hasty that decision of hers had been, especially when she knew he was dating Jackie.

It was almost like she _knew_ that was the last time she’d ever see him, and that her true feelings had been a weight on her chest that she could no longer bear to keep bottled up.

And yet, at the same time, his resentment felt unfair. He had no way of knowing when these feelings of hers had actually emerged, but Star never stopped trying to help him get Jackie’s attention. Even once they were finally dating, Star still went out of her way to include both of them in her lives however she could. As much heartache as it likely caused her, she must have valued their friendship over everything else, if she was able to force herself to put up with it for such a long time.

Conflicted feelings about Star aside, he still had overwhelmingly negative memories associated with that party. He preferred to forget about it where possible.

**Marco:** Gee, thanks for that, Janna  
  
**Marco:** I’d almost forced that party out of my recent memory, but now it’s back.  
  
**Janna:** sorry lol  
  
**Marco:** Why would Jackie be mad at me about that? Star having feelings for me doesn’t change anything  
  
**Marco:** Just wondering why you think that  
  
**Janna:** i dont, im just repeating what she told me  
  
**Janna:** and she told me she wasnt mad at u, sooo  
  
**Janna:** i dont think shes mad at all tbh? that was a week ago anyways  
  
**Janna:** go talk to her urself dude, im no therapist  
  
**Marco:** Alright  
  
**Marco:** Thanks, Janna  
  
**Janna:** no prob  


Though he did feel a bit guilty for withholding the truth of the situation from Janna, he swore to himself that he’d be honest about what really happened as soon as he felt able to. Janna was a mixed bag, and even though they were friends— _at least, I think we’re friends?_ —he had no idea how she was going to take the information. He wanted to give himself time to come to terms with it all before trying to explain it to his and Star’s friends.

He had some things he needed to take care of, first. There was someone that he needed to apologize to, more than anything. Hopefully she was home.

His door creaked open, and he slowly made his way back down the staircase. His mother looked up from the book she was reading on the couch, her eyes lighting up with concern. “Marco?”

“I’m gonna go see Jackie,” he said quietly.

“Okay…that’s okay.” Angie stood up and crossed the room to stand in front of him cautiously. “Just… if you need to talk, I’m here for you, sweetie.” She extended her arms in an offering for a hug.

“I know.” He accepted her gesture and rested his head on her shoulder. “I just need to talk to her first.”

He headed out to the garage. It didn’t take long for him to wheel his bike out of the garage and suit up. He never really felt like taking his bike out was all that notable. Nothing would compare to when he tried to teach Star a couple months back, but she—

 _No, stop it,_ he told himself, shaking his head as if it would help unscramble his thoughts in any way. _Stop thinking about her._

He was sure that the last thing Jackie needed was for him to suddenly show up on her doorstep in tears, especially when he had already done such a terrible job of communicating with her during his impromptu trip to Mewni. His only message to her about the entire situation had been incredibly brief. 

**Marco:** I’m going to Mewni to make sure Star is okay. It sounds like something bad is about to go down there. I’ll be back soon, I promise. Love you  


If he could go back in time a week, he would have done a better job of explaining himself. _But it’s too late to worry about it now. I just need to focus on the present._

Once he’d shut the garage behind him, he headed off in the direction of Jackie’s house. His gaze rarely lifted from the street, and he couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with any neighbors that he passed, out of fear of encountering someone who’d ask questions or demand answers.

It almost felt like some of the color in his life had been leeched away. The only thing that didn’t look any more faded to him was the moon, which was painted a vibrant and shadowy red, slowly climbing its way out of the magenta-colored morning sky—wait, _what?_

Marco rubbed his eyes fervently in an effort to snap himself out of it, but it didn’t work. No, his fears were completely correct, and he found himself staring up at the Blood Moon, hovering behind the clouds. It wouldn’t be visible for much longer before it sank behind the trees, but the fact of the matter was that it was _here._ It was still here, lingering in the background like a silent menace. A shudder ran up his spine as he watched it, unable to look away.

The front wheel of his bike suddenly collided forcefully with the curb, threatening to launch him over the handlebars. Miraculously, he managed to plant a foot on the ground to prevent himself from landing in a heap. He let out a trembling exhale as he stared up at it with an intense gaze.

 _Okay. Why it’s here isn’t important. You’re here to see Jackie,_ he repeated in his mind, over and over in the hopes that it would stick. _She’s worried about you. You haven’t spoken to her in a week. You need to apologize._

With one last fleeting glance at the moon, he backed his bike away from the curb and continued down the road towards Jackie’s house. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ♦ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“King River has returned.”

Moon’s gaze snapped up from the book on dimensional travel she had been scouring through. Even if she had publicly said that returning Star wasn’t first on her list of priorities, that didn’t mean that she was about to drop all of her efforts. As she viewed it, her status as as queen was an entirely different person from herself. Queen Butterfly was the one who would look after the kingdom, and Moon was going to find a way to contact her daughter. But hearing the news of her husband’s return reminded her that this situation was far too great in scale to look at it in such a black and white way.

“Is he alright?” she demanded, standing up.

The guard nodded. “He appears to be, yes.”

Moon let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in. “Thank goodness…”

She left her notes behind and quickly followed after the guard. It was a slightly unusual scene that she walked into, as there were several large eagles perched around the foyer. But her husband was there, too, and that was all that mattered to her in that moment.

“Moon-pie!” he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up at the sight of her. Their common formalities were forgotten as both of them rushed towards each other and met with a tight hug in the center of the room. “I’m so glad that you’ve returned safely.”

“And I you,” Moon murmured, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “I didn’t know how much more of this I could take...”

He pulled back from the hug to hold her hands instead. “You know, you really had me worried, leaving so suddenly!”

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, because I do! But if you and Star had to leave so quickly, it must have been serious...”

She’d sworn to herself that she wouldn’t cry, but her composure was betraying her. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated, her voice choking up on the last syllable.

River frowned in concern. “Did something happen?”

“I-I tried— but I didn’t— Star, s-she— I couldn’t...” River brought a hand up to cup her cheek, and she met his gaze with sad, watery eyes.

“Moon-pie?”

She lurched forwards and buried her face in his shoulder, holding him close as tears began to flow freely.

The few knights that were left in the room lowered their heads and excused themselves from the room, granting them both some privacy.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ☾ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

After a very brief internal pep talk, Marco was finally able to convince himself to knock on Jackie’s door. As anxious as he was to see her, he tried to focus on the floor as he waited, in the hopes of not overthinking anything. 

When the door finally opened and he was face to face with her for the first time in a man incredibly long week, he felt a grin take shape on his face. “Hey, Jackie—“

“Marco!” She darted forwards and caught him in a tight hug. “God, I was so worried about you, doofus!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m the worst.”

“No you’re not,“ she argued, holding him tighter. “I saw your message… but I sort of hoped you brought your phone anyways, just in case.”

“I can’t exactly get cell service on Mewni. Earth phones don’t work there,” he reminded her, chuckling halfheartedly. She laughed too, and it managed to brighten his smile a little. There was something comforting and familiar about hearing her laugh.

“I _know!_ I know, it’s just… you left without much of a warning at all. First Star, and then you… you guys really scared all of us.”

“I’m really sorry. I should’ve talked to you first. I didn’t mean to make you worry so much.”

“It’s okay, Marco. I know you didn’t mean it.”

A beat of silence passed as he tried to think of what to say and she patiently waited. _Where do I even start?_

“Do you think we can go sit down and talk about everything? It’s… a long story.”

“Yeah, of course!” She nodded and beckoned him through the door. “Come on in.”

He followed her upstairs—after a brief hello to her parents—and took a seat in her desk chair. She sat down criss-crossed on the foot of her bed and looked at him expectantly.

Jackie was the first one that dared to break the temporary pause. Her voice was cautious. “I take it that something bad happened?”

Marco was surprised by her forward ness. “W-what?”

“I can tell you have bad news, Marco. Well, either that, or something exhausting happened. I can see it in your face.”

“Oh, uh... yeah, your first guess was pretty on point.”

Jackie frowned sympathetically. “I may not know much about this Mewni stuff, but hey, I’m probably easier to vent at than a brick wall, right?” She leaned forwards and put her hands in her lap. “So lay it on me.”

“...How much do you want to hear?”

“Tell me as little or as much as you want to. If it’ll help you feel better, I want to hear it.”

 _But there’s so much that’s happened!_ “Gosh, where do I start?”

“The beginning, maybe?”

Marco nodded, and, taking a deep breath to try and calm himself, he began his story.

“Well... there’s always been a bunch of monsters from Mewni that kept coming after Star. Their leader was named Ludo. He wanted her wand, but him and his lackeys are pretty incompetent, so they never managed to take it. Not until this guy named Toffee came along.”

“Toffee? That’s a weird name…”

“Yeah, I don’t really understand Mewni’s naming conventions, either,” he laughed. “Maybe it’s a normal name there. I mean, to be fair, most of Star’s family is named after celestial bodies, so it’s probably not that weird.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”

“Anyways, Toffee kind of showed up out of nowhere, and we could tell that this was a lot more serious than what we were used to with Ludo.”

“You didn’t ask anyone for help?”

“Star’s not exactly the type to ask her parents for help, so no, we just kind of dealt with it ourselves.”

Jackie pursed her lip. “That sounds like a really bad idea.”

“In hindsight, yeah, definitely. We had no idea who this guy was.” _Queen Butterfly made it sound like he’s pretty infamous,_ he remembered, silently wishing he had asked for more information on Toffee when he had the chance. “He’s the only one who ever managed to take the wand. He kidnapped me, and then he tricked Star into—“

“Excuse me?!” She interrupted, somewhat outraged. “You got— _you can’t just gloss over that!_ ”

“But this isn’t about me!” Marco protested. “I’m perfectly fine now, so it’s no big deal.”

“If you’re that calm about literally getting _kidnapped,_ I’m not sure how comfortable I am with you going to Mewni all the time...”

“It’s not a regular thing, I promise!”

“Okay, okay,” she sighed in defeat. “Fine. What happened there? Besides the whole hostage-taking thing.”

“He used me as blackmail to make Star destroy the wand.”

“I thought you said he wanted to take it?”

“That’s what we thought, initially,” Marco admitted. “He had Star use this really weird spell that set it off like a bomb. The whole castle blew up, Toffee included. We thought it killed him, but… well, it obviously didn’t. He came back.”

Jackie furrowed her brow, thinking for several moments. “Not to insult your storytelling or anything, but I’m really lost.”

“Yeah, I’m, uh... kind of skipping over a lot. Sorry.”

“It’s okay... I know there’s a lot to go over, probably.” She glances around her room once before an idea came to her. “Wait! What was up with the night of the school dance? In the graveyard, when that weird little bird dude showed up.”

“That’s Ludo,” Marco explained briefly. “Long story short... when Star tried to destroy the wand, it actually split it in two. Star kept the first half, and Ludo had the other one. That night in particular was when he stole the spellbook from Star.”

“What does that Toffee guy have to do with this?”

Marco tried to recall as much as he could about the days prior to Star’s disappearance, but the fact of the matter was that he hardly knew anything about Toffee’s involvement with the whole situation after his initial disappearance. There was obviously more to the situation, far beyond his own knowledge.

“That spell Star used must have put him inside of the wand. For some reason, she used it again, and she got caught in the blast that time...” He took a pause, having a hard time thinking about those that few moments before she disappeared. “Toffee got out. Wherever the spell put him, it put her in his place. I think that might have been his plan all along.”

He was leaving out a lot of the details—he could tell from the slideshow of emotions on Jackie’s face that she knew his explanation wasn’t quite lining up—but frankly, he could hardly make sense of it, either. Even if he had visited Mewni several times now, everything about it and its magic was otherworldly. He couldn’t imagine how crazy it sounded to someone who had never even been there.

It wasn’t that unlike the Neverzone, in that way, though Mewni was certainly a lot less intense. A few things had stuck with him once he left—mostly learned skills, like how to drive a dragoncycle or wield a katana—but all the rest of his memories of that place had faded in a matter of weeks. He supposed it was time shenanigans of some sort, but it was still weird to him that he had acquired these skills when he didn’t remember practicing them at all.

Jackie had remained silent, mulling over his words. In the temporary break in conversation, Marco went on, saying, “Apparently this guy has been involved with Star’s family in the past, but I don’t really know how.”

Finally, she spoke up, offering an idea of her own. “Can’t someone use the same spell, or something? Anything at all?”

Marco shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that simple. The wand seems to be broken for good now, and I think that’s the only way to get to where she is.” He stared at the floor as he was reminded of just how dire this situation was. “She’s trapped in a dimension that no one can get to, and… I can’t tell if that’s worse.”

Jackie immediately dipped her head in understanding, and her sadness was apparent on her face. “Gosh, this really sucks.”

“That’s a heck of an understatement.”

“You were _there_ when this happened? I can’t imagine how hard that was.”

He nodded once, averting his gaze from her when he felt his eyes begin to tear up again. “It should be so easy, but it’s not… everything that could have possibly gone wrong _did_ go wrong.”

Despite his efforts to hide it, Jackie was quick to notice his defensiveness. “Hey... come here.”

He hesitated for several second before finding the energy to move. When he got up, she stood as well and met him halfway in a hug.

“I-if I had known that was the last conversation I was going to get to have with her,” Marco mumbled, his voice never rising above a whisper, “I, I wouldn’t have just let her _leave_ without—“

Wordlessly, Jackie pulled him in tighter, resting her head against his shoulder. “I know,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry.” Marco could tell from her tone of voice that she was upset, even if she wasn’t really showing it in the same way he was.

In that moment, he felt awful for subjecting her to all of it. She and Star knew each other, of course—it was hard for _anyone_ not to be charmed by Star’s infectious personality—but he wasn’t sure if him dumping all of the information on her without warning was a fair way to relay the information. _I hope she doesn’t feel guilty about what happened._

Nobody should have felt responsible. Not Jackie, not Janna, not Marco. It felt awful to admit it, but Star had been a victim of bad circumstance, and that was all. It wasn’t his _fault._ He wasn’t supposed to be a mind reader.

A shudder went up his spine. _But why do I feel so guilty?_

“I’m so glad you’re here, Jackie,” he said, attempting to redirect his thoughts.

“And I’m glad you’re back,” she replied. “I’m so happy that you’re safe.”

At least he didn’t have to wake up for school tomorrow. That was something he didn’t think he could manage. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poorly disguised recap chapter? You bet. I think you can see why I cut Moon and Marco’s conversation where I did in the last chapter, because he’d basically be repeating the same things.


	4. The First Breath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One question still remains… what does Star think of all this?

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ♥ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

“Poor little Butterfly. You've lost your wings.”

Star had been in a lot of bad situations in the past, but this one was a top contender for the worst of it. The Whispering Spell had done its work and tossed her somewhere she didn’t recognize at all, into an ocean of what appeared to be corrupted liquid magic. Her plan—if it could even be _called_ a plan—must have worked in some fashion, because Toffee was here with her, too.

Now that she had finally found him, she quickly began to realize why her wand had become so increasingly dysfunctional. His presence in this dimension was likely the source of the problem. He appeared to have manifested directly from what was left of the magic, taking on the same sickly green color as their surroundings. His sludge-covered figure occupied so much space that even a singular tooth of his was larger than her entire body. He had ahold of Star by her hair, clearly amused by her struggling.

“Let me go!”

He paid her no mind, instead focusing on the tear in space in front of him. It was a window to the real world, and it was so close, just within reach. It was _right there_. But no matter how much she yelled and screamed, her mother’s unflinching stare never changed. They were worlds apart. Only Toffee had the power to communicate with her now.

“Now then,” he began, grinning a malicious smile. “Your majesty… do we have a deal?”

Horrified, she saw Moon hold out her hand, offering the severed finger. Her mother’s face was wearing a reluctant frown. “Take it.”

“No, mom, stop!” Star shouted, frantically trying to swim towards the opening in the sky. Maybe if she got up there, she could stop her mother somehow. Toffee couldn’t win. No, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “I can take him! Just hold on! Please!” She struggled and struggled, but no matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t seem to make it any further. Her mother placed the finger in his hand, and the deed was done. Magically, it reattached itself to his severed finger, and it looked as if nothing had ever been absent in the first place.

Inside of the wand, Toffee’s beady yellow eyes turned their focus to Star herself. She froze up as overwhelming fear washed over her. Everything about the situation was telling her to run as fast as she could, but she had nowhere to go. He towered over her smugly, content with what he had achieved. He lowered his head towards her, and she frantically tried to move as far away from him as she could.

“How does this make you feel, little Butterfly?” His voice was menacingly low.“Do you feel scared? Helpless?”

“Y-you won’t get away with this,” she snarled back, doing her best to appear intimidating.

“Get away with what, princess? Tell me, what do you know about my true intentions?”

He was right, in some capacity. At the end of the day, she still hardly knew anything about him or his motives. She couldn’t help but ask herself, _what do I have to do with this?_

Toffee’s patronizing grin widened as her uncertainty grew. “I do admire your fortitude, Star, but you really should know what you’re getting involved with before you charge in headfirst. There’s nothing brave about making foolish choices in the moment.”

“I’m going to fix the problems that I created,” the princess declared. “You’ve hurt my family enough, I’m not gonna let you do it again!”

“How admirable of you.” Toffee hummed, pausing to think for a moment. “You know… we are not so different, you and I.”

“No! You’re a murderer!” Star hissed. “We aren’t anything like each other, not at all!”

“I only do what I must to help me bring my cause to reality,” he explained plainly, remaining excruciatingly vague. “I don’t believe you’ll understand it just yet, but you will. Oh, you certainly will. This place will make you realize it.”

Star allowed herself to be smug. “I think you should have more faith in me than that. I’m not just gonna flip sides for no reason.”

“But that’s just it, princess. I _do_ have faith in you. I believe that you are capable of much more than you realize. You have the power to change other people.”

_W-what?_ How was she supposed to respond to _that_? It almost read like a compliment, but she knew that he had to have some sort of ulterior motive behind it. “Y-yeah, well… I’m going to stop you! I don’t care what it takes.”

His booming laughter echoed around them. “Ah, of course. In that case, I look forward to the day we meet again, princess.” Toffee looked up into the darkened sky for a moment, and then back down at Star. He opened his mouth, and a single, two-syllable word left his throat. “Goodbye.”

He started to rise into the sky, oozing further and further away. “No, no NO _NO!_ ” Star struggled to keep her balance, but was ultimately thrown off of him and was sent cascading down into an ocean of sickly green magic that swallowed her whole.

Star breached the surface mere seconds later, flailing her arms and turning her head back and forth in a panicked state. Only when she saw that she was alone did her heart stop pounding so violently in her chest. The magic had erupted into waves, crashing back and forth. She struggled against the sludge, but she was unable to stop herself from getting pushed under a couple of times. Frantically, she looked around, hoping to find something off in the distance, something to give her an idea of what to do next.

Without warning, her cheek marks began to glow a soft golden color. “What..?” All around her, small pieces of uncorrupted magic were glowing as well, easy to see in the plane of darkness. But they were fading out of existence fast, succumbing to corruption.

The princess started to panic. She tried to swim over to the nearest blob of light magic, but it disappeared right before she could grab it. “No, wait!!” Every attempt that followed was increasingly futile. Frustrated tears began to pool in her eyes. Her cheek marks kept flickering in and out, making the scattered uncorrupted magic even harder to spot.

A particularly strong wave grabbed ahold of her and shoved her head under the surface. She kicked her legs furiously and bobbed back above the waves, breaking into a fit of coughing. Again, her cheek marks glowed. She didn’t understand why—as far as she could see, there wasn’t any uncorrupted magic on the surface anymore. She’d wasted her one chance.

But far, far below, there was her beacon of hope. A piece of magic shimmered from its home in the depths. Without a second thought, Star gasped for air and dove under the surface, pedaling her way towards it. There was so much distance between it and her, but naïvely, she let herself pretend that there wasn’t any at all. It was just her and this scrap of magic. That was all that mattered anymore. _Just a little farther!_

And then it was gone.

She could feel herself breaking down. Her energy sapped from her body and her movements slowed. She instinctively breathed in and was only met with the suffocating presence of the corrupted ocean invading her mouth, stealing the air out of her lungs. The fear that had been plaguing the back of her mind took over full force in those last few seconds of consciousness. There was absolutely nothing she could do. Never had she ever felt so hopelessly lost.

✧·ﾟ: *·ﾟ✧

_“Star!”_

_The pitter-pattering of feet across the ground echoed all around her head. A bright white hallway extended infinitely in front of her._

_She started giggling hysterically. “Wait up!”_

_“Come on! You’re gonna miss it!”_

_“Miss what?”_

_“You’re never gonna know if you don’t hurry up!”_

_Her eyes blinked slowly, and when they opened again, there was only darkness in front of her. Was she blindfolded?_

_“I can’t see, this isn’t fair!”_

_“It’s a surprise.”_

_“Mhm...”_

_“Oh come on, don’t pout like that.”_

_“Well, I need someone to help me so I don’t accidentally trip and die.”_

_“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”_

_“Oh, come on, Tom, she’s right.”_

_She smirked. It felt good to hear that every once in a while._

_“Okay, fine! Fine.” Someone took hold of her left hand. “You just better keep up, then.”_

_“Yeah, yeah.”_

_Not long after, someone was holding her right hand as well. They all took off into a wild sprint, thundering through the field._

_“Come on, Star!”_

_“Slow down!” She huffed out, exasperated. “Gosh, what’s the big hurry?”_

“Star!”

Her name bounced off of the walls and ceiling, assailing from every known direction. She blinked repeatedly and shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts—until finally, some piece of reality snapped back into place.

“Hey, Star!”

Her eyes finally opened to a world of bright clashing colors, swimming around in the sky. There was a distinct voice coming from in front of her.

“Does this, uh, need salt?”

_Glossaryck? Why is he here?_ She wondered about it, but ultimately was in too delusional of a state to come to a reasonable conclusion. Wait—did he have a spoon? Why?

Apparently, her unresponsiveness warranted being poked repeatedly with said spoon. “Hey,” he said alongside each additional jab. “Hey. Hey. Hey. Star.”

It was annoying, she decided. “Oh, knock it off!” She swatted at the spoon in his hand, but completely missed due to her still skewed perception. She managed to sit upright, but not before Glossaryck shoved the spoon into her mouth.

“Less salt? More salt?”

Offended, she spat out the spoon and shoved it back into his hands. No amount of salt was going to save… well, whatever that big, bubbling pot of stuff was supposed to be. “Ugh, what is wrong with you?!” She pushed herself off of the ground and dusted herself off. “What's going on here? Where am I?”

“I have no idea. I doubt this place gets very many visitors. I mean, look at the place! It’s in disrepair, no one even dusts. Some people should never be hosts, I tell you—“

"Oh no,” she managed to gasp out. There were only so many places she could assume this to be, and well, with what had just happened… “I’m dead. I'm totally dead. I died!”

Glossaryck sighed, shaking his head. “Well, if you're dead, then I'm dead. And if you're calling me dead, I find it... well, I find it a little insulting, frankly.”

“Oh, no. I am totally dead.” There were so many confusing factors at play that she hardly could wrap her head around any of it. “And I'm stuck here…with _you_.” This was not her ideal purgatory by any means…

“Uh-huh. Again. A little insulting.”

_Why do I have to be stuck here with_ him _, of all people?!_ “You betrayed me!”

“I'm sorry it seemed that way,” Glossaryck murmured, returning to the side of the soup pot. “Can we get beyond this and just enjoy our time here together in... wherever we are?”

“Do you really think I'm gonna stay here with you and eat your dumb magic soup? Toffee is out there doing who knows what!”

“Star, what’s out _there_ doesn’t really matter to you right now, does it?”

“But it’s still my problem! I chose to go into the wand, I wanted to deal with him myself! Okay, yeah, maybe my mom tried to stop me, but it’s too late to change anything. I’m here now.”

“Well, why didn’t you listen to your mother, then?”

“What are you—ugh, you’re just like everyone else!” Star snapped, turning away from him and crossing her arms indignantly. It seemed like she could never escape this spiel, but she certainly did _not_ need to hear it right now, and from Glossaryck, no less.

“And everyone else is… who, exactly?”

“The ‘everyone’ who thinks that I’m incapable of doing anything for myself!” She put on a petulant, imitating tone as she continued to fume, mimicking the many people her anger had stemmed from. “‘Uh oh, would’ja look at that! Star’s gone and messed everything up again! You were supposed to be watching her! You were supposed to be keeping her under control!’”

“A straw man often enough does nothing to support your argument, Star,” Glossaryck said rather simply, not so much as flinching at her enraged display.

She ignored him. As far as she was concerned, she was just venting at an emotionless brick wall—a mirror, even. Something that was only there to bounce back all the terrible things she believed people thought of her. “I know I’m careless, reckless! I’m a joke! But is it really that hard to understand what I tried to do? I’m so sick of being monitored like a child! For once, I just wanted to clean up my own mess. I did this—“ she gestured to the pocket of space around them—“and I brought Toffee into the wand. I... I just wanted to end everything. I just…”

Her knees suddenly felt very, very weak. Silently, she cursed herself for not being able to stay angry. But she never was very good at that, was she? No, if there ever was a moment where she felt overwhelmed, she’d fall to her knees, cry, and wait for someone to come rescue her, to make all the bad things go away. Then she could pretend to be prepared for the next time, until another obstacle came along and knocked her fragile self down again.

At this point, she was only arguing with herself. “I _am_ a child,” she mumbled under her breath. “Just an impulsive, destructive little child.” _I really messed up this time, didn’t I?_ “I-I just wanted to prove that I can do this,” she cried out, tears already pooling in her eyes. Her hands came up to cover her face. “I thought that I could fix everything, but… I just made everything so much worse.”

“Star,” Glossaryck spoke up, his voice surprisingly sympathetic. “You tried. That’s all we can really do, isn’t it?”

“I tried,” she repeated. “But I messed up. Really, really bad. I-I don’t know what to do…”

“Sometimes, you don’t know anything. There’s quite a lot that I don’t know, even.” He hovered down to the ground to be at eye level with the young princess. “But you can’t let it scare you. If you’re scared, you’ll never start trying to learn why.”

She was shuddering now, crying. “I’m scared,” she whimpered. “I’m really, really scared, Glossaryck.”

“Of what?”

“I-I don’t know! I don’t know anymore.”

“Well, then, how about this? How about you try to figure out what you’re _not_ scared of, and go from there?”

“But I don’t _know_ -“

“Oh, come on, now, you can’t be afraid of everything.”

“Maybe I am!” was her childish retort, before she curled further in on herself.

“You aren’t going to get anywhere if you just sit here, on the floor. Do you really just want to hide behind my soup pot and not come out until you know everything is going to turn out okay?”

She sniffled. “W-well, no… I don’t want anything to do with your dumb soup.”

“There you go. You aren’t afraid of soup. That’s one thing off the list.”

The absurdity of that statement managed to get a solemn giggle out of her. “Yeah, sure.”

“Oh, and the floor. Obviously, you aren’t afraid of the floor.”

“Glossaryck, this is silly.”

“Well, evidently it’s working. There are a lot of things you aren’t afraid of. You just don’t realize it.”

“Duh,” she laughed, wiping at the tear streaks on her face with the palm of her hand. “I’m not afraid of you, or the air, or—“ she gestured at the pot—“or whatever weird ingredients are _in_ that soup.”

“If that’s so easy, then why don’t you know what you’re afraid of?”

For a moment, she thought about it. “I guess… I’m really afraid of dying. And being stuck here, forever. Being alone... and not knowing what’s out there.” The blip in space seemed to extend infinitely in every direction she looked.

“Good, good.” He nodded his approval, and a sincere smile appeared on his face—something that happened very scarcely. “That’s a good start."

“Okay, are you done interrogating me now?”

“I mean, you aren’t done yet. You still need to think about if you’re willing to act on one of those things.”

Her eyes fell on the horizon yet again as she thought about it.

“Just what are you going to do, Star Butterfly?”

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Glossaryck interlace his fingers. He was very clearly waiting for an answer of some kind. What exactly, she wasn’t all that sure.

“Well, I... I guess I’m gonna go see what else is here. Wherever here really is. Maybe...” she stood up quickly, looking out into the unknown. An ocean of colors swam and bled into an indistinguishable horizon, reaching out forever into the distance. “Maybe there’s something in another part of the wand that can help us get out of here. Well… assuming that we _are_ in the wand, and not in some weird type of after-death purgatory.” She subconsciously crossed her fingers. _I really hope it’s the first one…_

As she left, Glossaryck watched silently. Not a single emotion crossed his face. Only when she had disappeared did he shake his head, carrying a quiet chuckle under his breath.

“It’s for her greater good,” he said. He returned to and stared down into the soup pot intently. An ambivalent smile formed on his face. “For her greater good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry in advance if this chapter felt slow or disjointed, I find it very difficult to rewrite large parts of episodes in a way that flows well with my writing style. But I shouldn’t have to do that again in this fic, hopefully! Let the real canon divergence begin.  
> Also, hey! I went back and added chapter summaries to the previous chapters, because those are fun.


	5. Forget-Me-Not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Moon and River try to get some answers, Star gets lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a lot longer than I anticipated. I’ve been getting distracted writing stuff for way later down the line. Sorry about that!

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ♦ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

“Are you ready to speak with him, your majesty?”

Moon nodded once, certain. It had taken a day or so to find the time, but she now felt able to finally confront Ludo about his involvement with the way things had spiraled out of control. What she needed was answers, and nothing so far had given her any clues. The only item that was recovered on his person was his skull-shaped dimensional scissors, which Moon highly suspected had been stolen from the Avarius family, just like he had stolen their castle about a year ago.

River had insisted on accompanying her, and she was grateful to have him back by her side. He was doing a far better job of holding himself together, much of which she believed was for her sake.

Upon her confirmation, the guard unlatched the door and pulled it open towards them. The cell was quite dark and gloomy, but Ludo’s yellow eyes were easily visible in the darkness, catching the light that flooded in through the doorway. His arms were cuffed together in front of him with a long chain running from him to the wall—he was too short in stature to use the wall shackles. He watched them both carefully from his seat along the back wall, choosing not to make a move.

“King River…” His shrill voice carried a lilt of surprise. ”You’re back?”

River narrowed his eyes at him. “Yes… with no thanks to you,” he muttered.

“I’m surprised you were able to find your way back so soon,” Ludo mumbled, half to himself, before remembering the situation he was currently in and going completely silent.

Moon approached him in a few steps. “Ludo.” He flinched under the sound of her commanding tone, so she made an effort to soften her voice. “It’s in your best interest to cooperate with us.”

He glanced between the both of them several times, attempting to read their faces. “I don’t know what happened to Star, if—“

“It’s not that,” Moon interjected. “You have information that may be of use to us. You were the last person in possession of the Book of Spells. We’re here because it is pivotal that Glossaryck is returned to us.”

“Glossaryck?” He looked away guiltily, slouching his shoulders. “I-I’d almost forgotten…”

“What did you do with him?”

He drew in an anxious breath, shrinking as far into the wall as he physically could. “He’s… he’s gone. I burned the Book of Spells.”

Moon practically did a double take, completely caught off guard by his transparency. She couldn’t help the incredulous anger that immediately overtook her. “You _what?!_ ”

“Toffee goaded me into doing it!” Ludo was quick to try and deflect her ire, holding his hands up in front of himself as a defense mechanism. “He was inside of my wand! He convinced me to do it!!”

“I don’t care about your excuses—do you have _any_ idea how important that book was to my family?!”

“I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to do it, I swear!”

Moon buried her face in her hands, groaning. _Of course… it was foolish of me to assume_ anything _would be easy._

“Oh, sure!” River chimed in, equally frustrated with Ludo’s excuses. “And I’m sure you threw me into the sky on complete accident, too!”

“Well, no, that was definitely intentional. B-but not everything was!!”

“You don’t get to pick and choose what you’re guilty of!”

“I don’t know what you want me to say!” Ludo leaned forwards and glowered at both of them, his fears completely forgotten amidst his outburst. “Nor do I have any idea of what you expect to gain from this conversation.”

Moon let out a slow breath, attempting to calm herself down. “Why did you do it?”

Ludo blinked. “W-what?”

“Why did you burn our spellbook?”

“I told you, I didn’t—“

“Just tell me why you think you burned the book.” Her patience was hanging on by a dangerously thin thread. “I’m... I’m not mad. I’m trying not to be mad. I just want to know.”

The monster hesitated for several moments, thinking. “Th-the book, it’s— once you have it, it’s yours, right? You own it?”

She was a bit lost on where he was going with this, but she nodded anyways.

“And only the owner can write in the book?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“O-okay, well… I don’t know why, but the book wouldn’t let me write in it. I thought that I deserved to have my own chapter, but the book wouldn’t give me one! Glossaryck said it wasn’t mine anymore.”

Moon had never actually _seen_ the book behaving in such a way, mostly because ownership of the Book of Spells was never a problem. It was always inherited along with the wand on the heir’s fourteenth birthday. Sure, it had been misplaced once or twice, and earlier incarnations had been lost to time, but the actual book had never been successfully stolen by someone until now.

“I thought he really started to understand me, but all he ever did was laugh at my failure!” He was getting angry again, this time at the unpleasant scenes he was revisiting. “I was just so frustrated… I felt like the only way I could feel powerful again was if I took that stupid book down a few pegs.” He straightened his posture and looked up at them, a slight frown on his face. “I can’t do anything about the book. I’m… I’m _sorry_. There, I said it, okay? I’m sorry.”

Moon and River exchanged curious glances with one another, equally surprised to hear his apology so clearly voiced after trying to deny any blame.

River was the one to break the silence. “Did Glossaryck say who the book belonged to, if it wasn’t you?”

“Not a word.”

Moon began to pace, lost in thought. “Perhaps there _is_ something you can help us with, if not the book…”

“Huh?”

She turned to him. “What do you know about Toffee?”

Ludo’s mood immediately soured and he scoffed loudly. “What _about_ him?”

His disdain for the septarian was clearly evident in his tone. If Toffee truly had betrayed Ludo and taken complete control of his agency, it was no wonder that Ludo regarded him with such contempt.

Moon stooped down to level with him, hoping that she could convince him to listen. “It’s incredibly important that we find Toffee as soon as we can. He needs to be held responsible for what he has done, and you can help us achieve that.”

Averting his gaze, Ludo crossed his arms and huffed, like a child stubbornly holding onto a grudge.

“Do you have any idea of where he could have gone?” Moon continued. “What has he set out to do?”

He shook his head. “I knew nothing about him from the very first day I hired him to work for me.” His voice took on a petulant, almost jealous-sounding undertone. “What did he even do? Why does everyone care about him so much?!”

“Toffee,” she said, practically spitting out the word as if it were poisonous, “…is guilty of regicide.”

Her fists clenched at the mention of his name. She felt River place a hand on her back comfortingly, and she caught a glimpse of a sympathetic frown on his face.

The change in atmosphere, however, was lost on Ludo. “I don’t know what that means.”

“He killed my mother.”

Immediately, his face paled. “Y-your… oh…”

“I think you’re beginning to understand why this is so important to me, aren’t you?” she asked icily.

“Y-yes, your majesty… um, I’m very sorry—“

“I don’t want to hear any more apologies from you,” she sighed. “I just need you to tell me what you know about him. Anything could be of use.”

His stubbornness had all but disappeared as he nodded nervously. “Um, well… I really do wish I knew more… I thought he was only looking for payment when I hired him. But he took advantage of my monsters and tricked them into betraying me! He stole my castle and my men!”

Despite her better judgement, Moon still found herself feeling some kind of pity. “You had no idea how dangerous he was, did you?”

“No… I had no idea that he wanted to get to Star. Even after he overthrew me, I was sure he only wanted the wand for its power.”

As she listened, Moon found herself stricken with overwhelming guilt. _Star must not have known any better, either… I should have told her about him sooner. If only she knew how dangerous he was, she would have known to tell me._

Apparently, Star and Marco had ran into him well before Moon was aware he had emerged again. When she had listened to Marco recount all of their past encounters with Toffee, she was quick to realize that there was a lot Star had opted not to tell her. _I suppose that’s what I get for not being honest with her about what happened to—_

_No, she should have told me that she was in such danger regardless._

Moon was doing everything she could to avoid assigning _all_ of the blame onto herself—this situation was far more complicated than that—but it was hard not to feel like she had been complicit in endangering her daughter’s life by allowing herself to forget about Toffee. She had been so desperate to move on from her past that she foolishly let her guard down and suffered the consequences for it.

She hoped that she could one day learn the reason why her daughter, arguably one of the most outgoing people in the world, was so distant with her.

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ♥︎ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

Star hummed to herself as she continued to walk along the strange and unusual place she had found herself in. She wasn’t sure when exactly she had said her goodbyes to Glossaryck and set off on her journey, but she’d lost sight of him long ago. What had started as a pathway made of amorphous blobs of color had shifted into a bed of big, pink clouds. The surrounding sky was a pale blue, which was much more comforting than the sickly green it had been before. It was quite pretty, but she was beginning to worry that she might be getting lost.

She held her hands up to her face to form a makeshift megaphone, shouting “Hello!” into the void. “Anybody out there?”

_I guess there are worse places to be all alone,_ she mused. _It could be a lot creepier._

There also was the comfort that Glossaryck was here, too, even though she was still trying to stay mad at him. At least there was something familiar within all of the weirdness.

As she blinked, she caught a glimpse of something moving in the corner of her vision. Her initial impression was that it was just a cloud, but as it continued to happen and she repeatedly failed to get a good look at whatever was darting around, her footsteps slowed to a halt.

“Okay, weird magic dimension, what are you playing at?”

The dimension, of course, chose not to respond. At least, not in a way that she would understand.

“ _You…_ ”

“Huh?” _Is someone there?_ she wanted to ask, but she found herself doubting that she’d heard anything in the first place.

She was suddenly all that more aware of the complete silence. There wasn’t even a faint ringing in her ear, or a soundless breeze passing through. It was absolutely still, the only noise being her long hair brushing against her back as she looked around with increasing franticness.

“Hello?” she called out, unsure of if she wanted to receive an answer or not.

“ _You…_ ” repeated the ghostly voice.

Star felt her heartbeat quicken as she suddenly grew anxious. There was that inexplicable part of human—or, in this case, mewman—nature that allowed someone to recognize when they were somewhere they did not belong. Despite the similarities, it wasn’t fight or flight reflexes. There was no way it _could_ be, because she didn’t feel like she was in any sort of danger. She certainly felt out of her element, but this place wasn’t anything particularly special. And yet, she was getting the impression that she was not welcome here. Whoever was watching her was not here out of intrigue, but obligation.

She hugged her arms to herself nervously and set off again, hoping that the strange feeling would go away once she’d distanced herself from this place. But as she walked, the voice followed, infrequently calling to her. A second voice soon appeared, and then a third. Whispering, disembodied voices that hovered just over her shoulders, like spirits that she was never quick enough to catch a glimpse of. It was at that point that she stopped trying to count how many individual voices there were, in an attempt to calm herself down.

“Am I losing it?” Star asked aloud, as if it were going to make her case look any better. “I think I might be losing it.”

The voices continued to speak, both amongst each other and to what she assumed was herself. “ _It’s her… You’re not supposed to be here… I never was your wand—_ ”

That last one rattled her to her core. _Have I heard that somewhere before?_

Despite how unsettled she felt, she continued walking.

“ _Save yourself…_ ”

“F-from what?” _Please don’t tell me that there’s something here!_ Her encounter with Toffee had already been frightening enough. She seriously hoped that she wouldn’t be stumbling into a similarly dangerous situation. “Is someone here?”

“ _I’m sorry… I’m sorry…_ ”

She combed through her hair nervously with her fingers. _What are you sorry for?_

“ _I’m sorry for all the horrible things I’ve said and done... remember me, remember me..._ ”

A suffocating chill went up her spine and she froze in place. Those were her own words. It was the exact incantation for the Whispering Spell—the one that her mother had taught her several years ago. “Who are you?! What do you want?!” she shouted, growing more frightened and angry by the passing second. Were they _mocking_ her?

The voices continued their echoing round, reciting more of the Whispering Spell as if it were nothing more than a cryptic poem. “ _One to remember me.... I’m one to worship out of nothing, out of nothing..._ ”

She put her hands over her ears, but it didn’t block out the noise. “Stop it!”

” _I never was your wand._ ”

“STOP IT!”

Through the cacophony of voices, a single, haunting word stuck out to her, threatening to bring her to tears.

“ _Run._ ”

That was exactly what she did. Before she could think, she took off in the direction she happened to be facing, taking one last fleeting glance behind her before she fled for good.

Nothing was there to follow her. She was still alone. But her feet kept moving, carrying her faster and faster into the unknown.

That was when she tripped on something she couldn’t see, and then she was free falling, too shocked to make a sound.

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ♦ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

“We don’t have the Book of Spells, or Glossaryck, or the wand…”

Moon was pacing back and forth in the foyer while River watched on, uncertain. Her hands were held behind her back as she mulled over their incredibly limited options. “Or the High Commission…” she went on, her frown deepening.

“Is that because of the magic being broken?” River asked.

“No, it was Toffee. He was using some kind of dark magic that allowed him to tear their souls directly out of their bodies.”

“That sounds… painful.”

“It wasn’t, really.”

River’s eyes widened, horrified. “That happened to _you?!_ ”

She recalled her short conversation with Ludo in the Monster Temple from the week prior. At least, she’d _thought_ it was Ludo. It could have just as easily been another one of Toffee’s mind games. But she liked to think that she had gotten through to Ludo, at least somewhat, before everything had started to fall apart.

“He caught me off guard.”

Her brief explanation did nothing to ease her husband’s worries. “But you’re okay now? You’re not still hurt?”

Again, that day came back to her. She wasn’t sure what had happened exactly. Life had suddenly returned to her, and she awoke to see the High Commission members limply scattered around the room with dark, empty eyes. Lekmet’s frail hand was holding onto hers, and within seconds, he’d collapsed into dust. She could only assume that he had overused his powers trying to save everyone. She was the one who was granted a last chance, and she had taken it, fleeing as fast as she could, setting out to find Star before Toffee ever could.

She realized that she was wringing her hands together and made a conscious effort to stop it. “The only reason that I’m still here is because Lekmet gave his life to save me.”

River’s worry was first replaced with surprise, and then an eventual frown. He rarely met with most of the High Commission outside of formal gatherings. Even if he hadn’t been around Lekmet very often, he still appeared saddened by the news.

“He seemed like a nice guy… even if I never had any idea what he was saying.”

She felt as if she should have been more affected by the loss, too, but with how emotionally drained the past few days had left her, it was hard to tell how she felt about it at all. All she could think to do was nod in acknowledgement.

River slumped against the wall, moving to sit on the floor. “I don’t know much about this ‘magic stuff,’” he admitted. “I wish that I did, so that I might be of more help.”

Moon still found herself at a loss for words. They’d talked about Star for hours, and Moon had done her best to make it clear that what had happened was none of their faults—even though she still was having difficulty believing she wasn’t responsible in some way. _I can’t begin to imagine how he must really feel about all this…_

“I’m just so grateful that you believe me,” she admitted. “For a while there, I thought no one would.” The only other people who had witnessed what happened were Marco and Yvgeny, neither of which would be seen as reliable sources of information by any of the castle staff.

“Of course I do!” He exclaimed, taking her hand in his. “You always know what’s best.”

She gave him a thankful smile. “We’ll get through this. I know we will.”

“And Star knows it, too.”

“Besides,” she digressed, “it’s not as if the kingdom hasn’t faced hardship before.” _It’s only that I wished it wouldn’t happen to me, not again…_ “I think that we should close our borders.”

“What for?”

“As long as magic is unreliable, so are our safety precautions. I feel that we should turn our focus solely on the kingdom’s stability and defenses, in case any rogue monsters get any funny ideas.” _Or if Toffee decides to drop by for an unwanted visit,_ she noted. Really, septarians were the only monsters of serious concern during a magic outage. Their regenerative capabilities proved to be incredibly dangerous, and if any of them had any particularly malicious intent, there was a high chance that the guards wouldn’t be able to chase them off.

River nodded earnestly. “That is a fantastic point, my dear! We can’t have those scoundrels attempting to steal from our cornfields during this crisis.”

“That, and… well, I want to slow the spread of these unhelpful rumors as much as I can,” she confessed. The unspoken reason was well understood between them both. _Neither of us have any idea how we’re going to explain what’s happened to Star…_

“Wait… does this mean we’re cancelling the Silver Bell Ball, too?” River normally would have been elated to find a way out of attending a formal event, but he sounded much more cautious than usual.

She blinked in surprise. The annual ball had completely escaped her mind so far. _The Silver Bell Ball has gone on every single year, uninterrupted, for decades. Won’t cancelling it just draw more attention to our problems? Surely the other kingdoms will realize that something is wrong…_

A weighty sigh escaped her. “I suppose we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might have noticed that I’m using the original version of the Whispering Spell, and not the one from the series finale. Since the Whispering Spell had words to begin with (people with better ears than me were able to transcribe it) and it’s way cooler sounding than the S4 retcon in my opinion, so I’m using that one instead. Let it be known that nothing from the show past Battle for Mewni is automatically canon unless stated otherwise in this fic! I'm writing this fic with the intention that you could pick it up directly after watching BfM without needing any other prior knowledge.

**Author's Note:**

> Got a question for me? Hit me up at texaspooky.tumblr.com/ask. If I ever draw stuff for this AU, it'll end up on this blog too.


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